Film credits are usually just a part of the film to be gotten through these days. In fact, most modern movies leave almost all their credits for the long, slow scroll at the film’s conclusion, lest the audience be bored by the lack of creativity. But to Saul Bass, those credits were a true art. “The daubed graffiti credits that open West Side Story, the crumbling statues in Spartacus, the scratchy modernist posters and sleek corporate logos of his later work all carry his measured approach to expressing a story in, as he put it, ‘some metaphorical way’. That approach is the subject of an extensive exhibition which opens [this weekend] at London’s Design Museum.”
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The Strads Are Coming, The Strads Are Coming… uh, Never Mind…
Ontario’s fledgling Stratford Summer Music Festival thought it had scored a coup when it signed up the Axelrod String Quartet to bring its matched set of Strads loaned by the Smithsonian. But then the deal came apart…
Looking Forward To Days Of Yesteryear
ABC’s new drama, “The Days,” has the potential to revolutionize the television industry, but not because of anything that happens to the characters. Instead, ABC is using the miniseries to test out the next generation of product-placement techniques, and is taking a page from the golden age of the medium, when companies sponsored entire programs rather than simpy buying 30-second spots. To advertisers, it’s a way to get value for their ad-buying dollar at a time when most viewers click away from ad blocks. To the network, they hope it’s a way to keep the money rolling in without angering viewers with blatant commercialism.
John: America’s Endangered Free Speech
Elton John warns that free speech is endangered in the US. “The singer likened the current ‘fear factor’ to McCarthyism in the 1950s. ‘There was a moment about a year ago when you couldn’t say a word about anything in this country for fear of your career being shot down by people saying you are un-American’.”
The New Improved La Scala
La Scala plans to reopen its newly-refurbished opera house this fall. “During our first year we shall give 185 performances. That is a lot when you consider the high quality of each work that we present and the number of rehearsals. With the technical possibilities that we now have we shall increase quantity while maintaining quality. Our new stage machinery is the most modern in the world. Until last year we needed hours or one or two days to shift scenery. Now it can be done immediately. You just push a button and it is done.”
Moscow To Stage First Art Biennale
“The month-long event is scheduled to open January 18, 2005, in a range of state-owned art venues, including the Tretyakov Gallery, the Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts, the Central House of Artists, the Shchusev Architecture Musem and the Moscow Museum of Contemporary Art.”
Sights On Celebrating Singer
Celebration of the 100th birthday of Isaac Bashevis Singer has proven controversial. “While many consider him one of the best Jewish writers of all time, others in the Yiddish literary world see him as melodramatic, profane, and even unworthy of the Nobel Prize he received in 1978.”
The Poetry Police
The secretive operators of the website Foetry (www.foetry.com), a self-described “American poetry watchdog,” are out to clean up poetry. They promise, from behind a cloak of anonymity, to uncover scandals among the publishers of contemporary poetry, dishing dirt on “fraudulent `contests,”‘ as their homepage has it, “tracking the sycophants,” “naming the names,” and generally cleaning house.
Bobby Fischer Arrested
Former chess champion Bobby Fischer has been arrested and detained in Japan by the request of US authorities. “The arrest capped a cat-and-mouse game between U.S. authorities and Fischer, who shuttled among several nations, including Japan, the Philippines and Hungary, to avoid arrest. A grand jury in Washington charged him with violating the International Emergency Economic Powers Act by going to Yugoslavia for the chess match against Boris Spassky.”
The Actors Contract
Details are emerging about the new contract between actors and producers. “The pact includes an annual 3% wage increase over the contract’s four-year life, along with “meaningful increases in health-fund contributions” to stabilize the fund “for the foreseeable future.” The two sides have also agreed to experiment with a new tiered salary system for national tours. The current weekly minimums under the old Production pact are $1,354 for actors in a musical or play. For stage managers the minimum stands at $2,225 for a musical and $1,913 for a play.”